Sunday, September 20, 2015

There was a young Jedi Padawan named Ahsoka Tano, the apprentice of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

(Spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star
Wars: Rebels)

In 2008, in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars
movie and the ensuing TV series, Star Wars fans all over the world were
introduced to a new character: Ahsoka Tano, a teenaged Togruta Padawan
learner. According to George Lucas,
Ahsoka was developed for the series to demonstrate Anakin’s growth from the impetuous,
headstrong Padawan in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
to the more disciplined Knight of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. By giving Anakin a Padawan of his own, they
were essentially putting him into a father role that would drive him to become
more cautious and embrace his responsibilities.
And not only that, but by putting him through the experience of Master
and Apprentice from
the other side of the fence—as it were—they meant to strengthen and lend understanding to his relationship with Obi-Wan. The decision
to make Anakin’s Padawan a young woman was made when Lucas said he “knew
something about the subject,” having raised two daughters of his own. Although Star Wars: The Clone Wars has long
since reached its untimely end, Ahsoka has endured and grown up independent of
it, going on to join the new crew in the current series Star Wars: Rebels. Since her inception, Ahsoka has gone on to
garner thousands of fans—boys and girls alike, and here are five of the many
reasons why.

1. She’s brave and
determined, and she never gives up.

Due to equal parts Jedi training, Anakin’s teachings, and
her own innate unshakable spirit, Ahsoka is fearless both on and off the
battlefield. She’s always right behind
her Master—and sometimes in front of him—as they lead their clone troops into battle. And even without her Master, that
fearlessness never wavers. On one
occasion, Ahsoka was kidnapped and dumped with other captured Jedi Padawans on
an abandoned planet to be live game for barbarian Trandoshan hunters. Not once did Ahsoka give up hope. She led her fellow Padawans against their
captors in escape attempt after escape attempt, relying on her Jedi teachings
and her Master’s guidance: stealing weapons and airships and making allies out
of their captors’ other prisoners. Her
leadership and courage not only freed her fellow captives but reunited her with
her Master.

(Aww, look how concerned he was!)

2. She and Anakin made
a perfect—if unlikely—pair of Master and Apprentice.

They are a lot alike, Anakin and Ahsoka. Both are brash, possessed of an almost
ungodly amount of courage and a certain disregard for rules. When they first meet, Anakin and Obi-Wan are
in the middle of a war zone on the planet Christophsis, and it was Obi-Wan who
had put in an offer to take on a new Padawan, not Anakin. But Master Yoda felt that it was time Anakin
honoured the age-old Jedi tradition of passing down knowledge to the next
generation, and he was convinced that if Anakin had an apprentice of his own it
would teach him patience and responsibility.
The majority of Ahsoka’s first mission in that war zone was spent
trading jabs with her new Master; she dubbing him “Skyguy” and he calling her “Snips”
for her “snippy” attitude. Their equally
headstrong natures were not long in getting them into trouble. On the way to deactivate an enemy forcefield
that was causing problems for their troops, they got themselves ambushed by
enemy droids and Ahsoka very nearly squashed her new Master to death when she
Force-pulled a wall down on top of the droids attacking him. But despite such a rocky start, Anakin was
impressed by her resourcefulness and her bravery, and made no effort to get her
transferred to another Master.

3. Her kind heart is
equal to few others.

There are many times Ahsoka looked after the welfare of the
clone troops under her command and that of her Master, and she not only cared
about many of them but grieved deeply when they died in battle. She also has a soft spot for children. When rescuing Force-sensitive infants from
infamous bounty hunter Cad Bane, Ahsoka tirelessly and without complaint helped
care for them until Jedi reinforcements arrived. In other instances, she undertook the task of
teaching a class on political corruption to young cadets on the planet
Mandalore and lent an understanding and helpful ear as they attempted to apply
what they learned to their own lives.
She also escorted and protected Jedi younglings as they completed the
ancient Jedi tradition of seeking and claiming a lightsaber crystal on the
planet Ilum, and offered guidance as the younglings assembled their
lightsabers.

4. Like the most exemplary of her Order, she is
selfless in her protection of others.

It is the duty of the Jedi to serve and protect, to be
peacekeepers, and sometimes warriors when the need arises. And sometimes it falls to the Jedi to make
the most ultimate of sacrifices when protecting others. In this, Ahsoka is as steadfast and sure of
heart as any of the Knights and Masters to come before her. During a mission when she and her Master were
paired with another Master-Padawan duo of Jedi Knight Luminara Unduli and her
apprentice Barriss Offee, Ahsoka and her fellow Padawan were assigned the task
of planting and setting explosive charges to bring down an enemy droid
facility. Over the course of the
mission, Ahsoka and Barriss were not only separated from their Masters, but
they were faced with a terrible choice: saving potentially thousands of lives
or their own. In the end, both Padawans
followed the teachings of the Jedi and their Masters and made the choice that
would preserve thousands of innocents.

5. In the end, Ahsoka is unafraid to walk her
own path.

There came a time when Ahsoka was framed for a grave act of
violence against the Jedi Temple, expelled from the Order and forced to go on
the run. She was eventually cleared and
the perpetrator was caught, but the damage had been done. She refused the offer to return her to the
Order and chose to leave the Jedi behind to find her own way in the
galaxy. In doing this, she was leaving
behind not only the Master she had come to view as a father but the only family
she had ever had. Ahsoka had been found
as a very young child by Master Plo Koon of the Jedi Council, abandoned by her
parents, and she was raised in the Temple until the age of fourteen, when she
was chosen by Master Yoda to be the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. I don’t know about you, but it would take a
great strength of will that I do not possess to walk away from and sever ties
with the only family I’ve ever known.
For those of us who are steeped in Star Wars lore and know what was to
come in Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith, we now know that
Ahsoka’s courageous decision spared her from the genocide that wiped out the Jedi
and destroyed the Republic, enabling her to return in the new series Star
Wars: Rebels.

Like many other Star Wars fans out there, I love
Ahsoka. I grew to love her over the
course of the series for her heart, her spirit, and the fact that she does not
let anyone define who she is but her.
And like many of my fellow fans, I cried when she made the decision to
leave the Jedi at the end of season five.
I still do, sometimes, when I watch that episode. At that point in time, to us fans, her fate
was uncertain. We did not know if she
died like all the other Jedi despite her leaving or if she survived Order
66. But then in October 2014, a year
after her departure, we fans were rewarded for our loyalty and our tears when
Ahsoka made her triumphant return to the world of Star Wars as she joined the
fight against the Empire in Star Wars: Rebels and found her
destiny as one of the founding members of the infamous Rebel Alliance. To quote Darth Vader…

Hi. I'm Galahad. But those that know me call me another name. Writing's in my blood, and I breathe in books so deeply that the characters become family, and their worlds, mine.
I'm a die-hard Marvel fangirl, and I claim dual citizenship in the USA and Middle-earth. I don't discriminate between tea and coffee; I love both, and family means more to me than anything else in the world.
(Photo source: Not Our Fight by Westling on Deviantart)

Gah!! Ahsoka is my favourite character from Clone Wars! And for all of those reasons!!! She is so fantabulous and Anakin and her together are just like... Awesome. But as a father/daughter or brother/sister relationship, no other way. I cry every time Ahsoka leaves!!! Agh! It breaks Anakin's heart so much... And mine too. Okay, pardon me, but I need to go sob for the rest of the week. ~E